Chews

I cannot see Sour Punch products and not think of one of my college roommates, who was the one who really introduced me to the Sour Punch candies. It’s amazing to me how many things, people and experiences you can associate with a certain candy. Since I really am a sucker for citrus flavors, this box of Tangerine Lemonade Sour Punch Bit really called to me. The box is a decent size, colorful and appealing. I really love the expressions of their Sour Punch characters on the front puckering up.

My readers may remember that I reviewed another Sour Punch Bits flavor last year, Strawberry Watermelon. These bits are way more colorful with their orange and yellow stripes. They are brightly colored and covered with a sour sugar. These exude a more “sour” presence than the other flavor did. They remind me of those colored erasers you see in Staples and Office Max.

The texture of these is soft but similar to plastic. The flavor is nice and way more up my alley than the Strawberry Watermelon. The tangerine flavor is spot on as it’s like orange, but way more zesty and tart. The lemonade accents it nicely with a lemon zip that keeps the flavor contrast from fading at all. This flavor has way more “punch” to me because the actual fruit flavors are zesty, so when the sour sugar wears off there is still sourness to the candy. I couldn’t help but pop one another another into my mouth to continue that sour flavor. It’s really addicting!

These are one of my favorite Sour Punch candies to date. I really like the shapes of them as opposed to the straws and belts. They’re just more pop-able and more intense since they’re individual pieces. This also makes them easy to share too, in my experience. So if you’re a fan of Sour Punch or any sour candies, I feel these are worth checking out.

Once in awhile you find a candy that branches outside of itself. Hershey’s Kisses is a good example, as there have been multiple types of Hershey Kisses candies besides classic Kisses. It’s a candy that evolved into something different. Another good example is Lifesavers, which was originally hard candies then branched into gummis. That is what today’s review is about. I found these Mike & Ike Fruit Twists and saw that this brand too was trying to transform into something else. This time, it’s from jelly beans to licorice twists.

I found two different flavors, the green package is Blue Raspberry with Strawberry Fruit Flavored Twist”. The orange package is “Green Apple with Watermelon Fruit Flavored Filled Twist”. The packages are long and thin, like the ones you see for NERDS Ropes. I am really curious as to what these look like.

Opening the Green Apple package first, they really do look like a jumbo licorice twist with a colorful filling. The Green Apple is a apple green color (fancy that) and the filling is a peach color. It smells sweet with no real indication of what the flavor might be like. The Blue Raspberry is a deep cerulean blue color wit a bright color pink filling. This one does have an aroma and it smells like sweet berries with a hint of sour.

Green Apple/Watermelon: The flavor starts off sweet and perfumy and delightfully of melon. Seems like the flavor of the filling comes through first! The watermelon flavor is really nice. It’s sweet and really does have authentic hints of watermelon and honeydew. The green apple chew exterior is very chewy, much like a licorice twist would. The flavor is indeed sour apple with notes of peach, pear and pineapple. You do get a little taste of sour in there, but overall the flavor is very muted compared to the cream filling.

Blue Raspberry/Strawberry: Unlike the other flavor, this one you really taste the Blue Raspberry twist and the filling right away. The strawberry filling is sweet and has good notes of berries and jam. I taste a sourness in the middle of strawberry flavor, which I always find odd since strawberries aren’t supposed to be sour. The blue raspberry has very nice juicy flavors of berries, but oddly isn’t sour at all. Together the two flavors work well and makes for a flavorful and interesting chew.

These twists were certainly interesting, but they’re really not my thing. I enjoyed the novelty of having the flavors of one candy in the form of another, but for me the appreciation doesn’t go beyond that. In the future when I want Mike & Ike flavor,s I’ll go for the original candy and not the twists. However, if you’re a big fan of licorice twists, I recommend you give these a try. They might not excite me much, but I did find them more flavorful than say, Twizzlers. That alone earns them some merit in my book.

Along with the Mentos DUO that I reviewed last time, I also found this Lakrita Mint flavor as well. I saw pictures of licorice and mint leaves on the side, and I realized it’s been a long time since I’ve had any black licorice. Like an itch that you need to scratch, I felt it’s been too long so I decided to try this flavor too. Into the basket it went and I looked forward to when I could taste what Mentos thought licorice was like.

I know the Dutch are really into their licorice, and as a fellow black licorice lover I really appreciate that. They get way more interesting licorice candies than we do here in the US, which is a huge understatement since black licorice is so hard to find in our country. Still, sometimes I am lucky enough to encounter black licorice that’s imported from Europe every so often. And I found this roll of Mentos Lakrita Mint on one of those lucky streaks.

The dragees are actually a bright white. I was really expecting black or dark gray. They have no aroma to them at all, which I also find puzzling. I pop one into my mouth and begin chewing and immediately taste peppermint. It’s a bright, intense, and fresh flavor that reminds me of intense toothpaste. Halfway through chewing the licorice flavor starts to come through. The peppermint gradually fades away to reveal and very intense and flavorful black licorice flavor. I get notes of molasses, anise and a little bit of herbs. The licorice flavor is actually a tad salty to boot, which I think this is a first for me, because normally I hate salty licorice. This is different, as I quite like it. A lot. It’s just a kiss of salt, enough to notice it, but it really enhances the licorice flavor and I found myself enjoying it very much.

I was expecting to not like these Mentos at all, since I’m not the biggest fan of peppermint and some black licorices don’t have the greatest flavor. These I really loved. They’re refreshing without it being too much, and the licorice flavor is very satisfying. It just goes to show that you have to try something in order to know if you really like it. I found a new favorite and something I can nab whenever I need a licorice fix. I urge you all to give that candy you’ve been eyeing a try, sometimes it’s a risk but it can be a very rewarding one!

Mentos are a candy that I really don’t have very often. I can’t really say why, since I remember their commercials from my 80s childhood and they always seemed appealing. As I got older I really liked their strawberry flavor and recall it being a “special treat’ when I was able to try some when a friend bought a roll. For something that feels so special to me, I’m surprised why I don’t buy them more often. Regardless, when I see an new and unique flavor of them, of course I’m buying one to try! I saw this roll of Mentos DUO at Cost Plus World Market, and I was beyond delighted to see that they had some Mentos imported from Holland. Yes please!

The package looks almost identical to the ones sold here in the United States. The only things that hinted that it was foreign was that it had a strange flavor and the import sticker that’s on the side. The wrapper is incredible colorful and pretty, with images of strawberries and lime slices. It’s a very bright and fun red/green color combination.

The dragees are pastel pink and smell very strongly of strawberry. The chew starts off very sweet and flavorful of the strawberries you get in the aroma. It’s sweet and slightly floral with a hint of cotton candy. The chew is soft and inviting, and you easy start working away at it. The strawberry flavor persists until your start getting toward the center. That’s where the lime flavor shows up. The lime flavor isn’t terribly tart, but it does have a vibrant citrus quality to it. The flavor actually blends beautifully with the strawberry instead of clashing with it. Buy the time the lime is at it’s full flavor strength, the dragee is all but chewed up. So the lime taste gradually sweetens and fades away.

I enjoyed this flavor a lot, and I know a lot of my friends who would enjoy it too. I have to admit though, as tasty as it was, after a few pieces I was really satisfied and didn’t feel the need to have any more. I like how Mentos is packaged like that, it’s easy to take however much you want, twist the wrapper and store for later. I certainly appreciated the unique flavor and hope to try more of what the Mentos from Holland have to offer.

There are times when I love Cost Plus World Market, and there’s times when I reeealllllyy love Cost Plus World Market. They are really great for candy hunting sometimes, and on one of my more recently trips there I struck candy gold. I found a bunch of interesting flavors of Mentos there, this Fresh Cola flavor one of them.

I’ve noticed that cola as a flavor is way more prominent in candy over in Europe than it is here in the Unites States. Honestly, the only “common” candy that I can think of that’s cola flavored is the Haribo Cola Bottles, and that’s not a domestic candy!I guess I’ve just proved my own point. I guess folks here just enjoy drinking the flavor too much. So finding this flavor in Mentos really felt special to me, since I don’t get cola flavored candy very often.

The package uses an attractive red color scheme (Coca Cola anyone?) and shows a carbonated glass of cola on the right side of he logo. It looks very fresh and invigorating. The candy dragees (as the package calls them) are a muted beige color and don’t have any aroma to mention. They feel hard and I’m unable to squeeze them in my fingers.

Popping one in my mouth, I immediate get the cola flavors as it feels like it just sizzles onto my taste buds. It’s sweet, it’s spicy and have a wonderful earthiness to it. Now, I know what you all are immediately wondering: what familiar soda does it taste like? Well, it’s about 85% Pepsi in flavor I’d say. I say 85% since I feel this flavor is more complex. I get more spice and fruity flavors in these Mentos than I do wit Pepsi. This might be because Pepsi is, as a drink, not as concentrated as a flavored candy would be. Also I think that every one had as different idea as to what “cola” tastes like. The texture is nice, as they’re easily chewed and aren’t too sticky.

I really enjoyed these. I’m glad I bought two rolls of them at the time. They’re fun to eat, very flavorful, and the texture is fun. I also love how you can just have a few, twist the top of the package and you have more for later. Point being, these were awesome. The flavor is refreshingly different, and I encourage you to try them if you ever happen upon them. Or any cola candy for that matter.